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Meeting everyone on a new team

annashipman.co.uk

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Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#51

Post by jan_g »

rootsofallevil wrote: post #47
jan_g wrote: post #40

> This is confidential. If you say something about someone else I’m not going to go and tell them. Warning to all of you in non-managerial position: be very wary of confidentiality proclamations. It happened to me that my manager ran immediately to the CEO, when I said I'm going to start looking for a new job in 3-6 months time. I told him that I specifically don't want this information to leak, but yeah, everybody k…

would you say that you trusted your manager enough not say anything or were you just venting and maybe revealed too much? For me, potential job changes is the only thing I will lie about to a current manager. I appreciate that a manager might be concerned about losing staff but if half the team have gone due to very clear changes in the way things are run (dictated from above), why would I be any different?

I wasn't venting at all. I told him on purpose, so I could say that I trusted him enough. Obviously that trust was misplaced and we also didn't have a 1-on-1 again, I simply refused. What can they do? Fire me? Then didn't, but I left anyway in about 3 months' time.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#52

Post by Jach »

photonios wrote: post #49
dv35z wrote: post #11

Perfect timing. I just joined a company this past week as a software engineer. Day one, I knew 5 people, only topically. By the end of week 1, I have introductions/1:1s scheduled for 30+ top-notch people at the organization. Here's the method I used to do this: I created a really comprehensive intro email about myself (work stuff, personal stuff, passions, etc). I wrote this in Google Docs, so it would be easy to pas…

Maybe I am too European for this, but I'd be very wary if I received such emails. I'd shrug and throw it in the bin. You come across as a try hard that is more concerned with "chit chatting" than performing actual work. My 2 cents for starting a new job: shut up and work. Contribute, show what you can do. Teams are often overworked. Start closing tickets, making small improvements. Don't step on anyone's toes. Observ…

For me it's a matter of introversion, it all sounds so tiresome and I would most likely ignore the email. At most I'd selectively answer a few things in email but decline any actual meeting. I'd probably bucket the sender as a promotion-seeking hustler I don't really want to work with, though all the best to them in achieving their more social oriented goals.

I share your opinion on a job being there to do actual work. Sometimes that work requires talking to other people (curiously though teams would rather have several long internal meetings arguing about something that could be decided with a couple conversations with customers), but this field needs less of that than others and in many ways suffers too much from over-chatting as it is, when many are just happy to have unnecessary meetings replaced by slightly less unnecessary emails. Even in the submission, the new technical director isn't expected to code. A lot of orgs work that way, after a certain point up the ladder you just stop coding but I think it's wrong. (I pushed back against getting myself promoted at my last job in large part because of that -- very few Principles coded at all, and our 'Architects' never coded. And that's on the tech tree side, the management side with all the decision power was obviously even more hopeless and detached from the way things were.)

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#53

Post by draw_down »

I was surprised to see the reluctance to do this, stated multiple times even. In my opinion, doing this is table stakes, not really much question there.

A new leader who didn’t take the time to do this would make me wonder why, and probably not make a great impression on me in terms of their ability to lead. When the head of engineering joined my company, he met with every engineer, several hundred at the time.

Sure it takes time. And you should do it.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#54

Post by goatinaboat »

qznc wrote: post #39
stuart78 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the big company I work for there are several valiantly started and quickly forgotten TLA dictionaries available on various SharePoint sites. Yet none had the few critical ones people were using when I started. Wondered if the popular jargon changed or different groups had splintered their technical talk.

We even have an internal web app. After years, still new acronyms are added every day.

We even have an internal web app. After years, still new acronyms are added every day.

A previous employer had one of these. Submitting a new acronym required a change request and took several weeks to make onto the site. Needless to say, it was useless for its intended purpose.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#55

Post by ludamad »

stuart78 wrote: post #25
jrott wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously in any big company who can you go to ask what acronym $TEXAS means is an important question.

In the big company I work for there are several valiantly started and quickly forgotten TLA dictionaries available on various SharePoint sites. Yet none had the few critical ones people were using when I started. Wondered if the popular jargon changed or different groups had splintered their technical talk.

The thing is every group exclusive TLAs from their local group, from their greater group, their company, their industry, etc. These acronyms can easily conflict and live very different lifespans, making a wide dictionary hard (except for identifying common ones, of course)

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#56

Post by jeffrallen »

I would like to work with her.

I've had bosses occasionally call me in for these types of open questions. It's really useful. But there's also a bit of mystery to when it happens and why it is not equally distributed across the team. There's a bit of "teacher's pet" anxiety associated with it.

There's another thing that can happen in these confidential conversations which she was not in a position to do at this point... Sometimes the boss can explain the political landscape he/she finds themselves in, such that you can contribute better insights to help them protect your team.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#57

Post by jeffrallen »

jan_g wrote: post #40

> This is confidential. If you say something about someone else I’m not going to go and tell them. Warning to all of you in non-managerial position: be very wary of confidentiality proclamations. It happened to me that my manager ran immediately to the CEO, when I said I'm going to start looking for a new job in 3-6 months time. I told him that I specifically don't want this information to leak, but yeah, everybody k…

Christ what an asshole. Glad you were planning on leaving, because.... f*ck that guy.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#58

Post by esfourteen »

jan_g wrote: post #50
websap wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. For me saying this conversation is confidential has a negative connotation. It raises some flags like: 1. Are we going to talk about something which we can't broadly address? 2. How do I trust someone new on the team to actually keep things confidential, what have they done to earn my trust? 3. I'm going to be more guarded about what I say, because now I'm thinking this person will probably want to miscons…

It's stupid in hindsight, but I just wanted to give him a chance to better prepare for me leaving, like start looking for new developer(s) or shift plans, etc.

I don’t think it’s stupid at all, it just shows you had a not so great manager. They could have used this information to start preparing without revealing the specifics. Unfortunately it’s these types of incidents that make people weary of engaging in this level of candidness.

At the company I just left, I felt extremely comfortable telling my direct manager I was interviewing. By the time I got an offer we had a plan in place for my departure.

It’s certainly a situation specific action, and it’s unfortunate that more managers aren’t equipped to handle this adequately.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#59

Post by dv35z »

Riverheart wrote: post #31
zvorygin wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for posting this! I'm going to be starting a new job sometime soon, and this is giving me all sorts of ideas! Especially thank you for being so comprehensive in your comment. Some questions: What size is your company, and what level of SWE are you? Did your referrals tend to move up the org chart, or stay at the same level? Is your role very broad? I ask this last one because a question like "How do you env…

+1 about the company name.

Thanks, no matter how many times you re-read, you always miss something!

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#60

Post by jeffrallen »

jan_g wrote: post #50
websap wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. For me saying this conversation is confidential has a negative connotation. It raises some flags like: 1. Are we going to talk about something which we can't broadly address? 2. How do I trust someone new on the team to actually keep things confidential, what have they done to earn my trust? 3. I'm going to be more guarded about what I say, because now I'm thinking this person will probably want to miscons…

It's stupid in hindsight, but I just wanted to give him a chance to better prepare for me leaving, like start looking for new developer(s) or shift plans, etc.

Another way to handle it might have been to say, "we need to improve cross-training on the team in case someone leaves". Let them figure out if the subtext themselves, if they manage.
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